Sunday, April 6, 2014

The Struggle to free the Cuban Five

The
Cuban Five, Who they are? Why they were framed? Why they should be
free? – From the pages of the “Militant” newspaper.

“I
will die the way I lived – 15 watercolors by Antonio Guerrero for the 15th
anniversary of the imprisonment of the Cuban Five

A
review

Over
the years I’ve written several letters to five political prisoners held in the
dungeons of this country.They are known
as The Cuban Five and have been kind
enough to reply to my notes.Theses five
prisoners include: Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerero, Ramón
Labañino, and René González.René and
Fenando have been released from prison and now live at home in Cuba.

Recently,
Gerardo Hernández, one of the Cuban Five, replied to my note and recommended
that I read the book, What Lies Across
the Water by Stephen Kimber.This
book gives a documentary history of who the Cuban Five are, and why the U.S.
government worked tirelessly to frame them up.Before reading Kimber’s book I read the Pathfinder book about the Five
that is also worth reading.

Since
the Cuban Revolution that erupted in 1959 nearly 3,500 Cuban men, women, and
children have been murdered in terrorist attacks.These bombings or outright assassinations
were organized by the U.S. government, or by people trained and supported by
the U.S. government. Any government
interested in representing the interests of its people would carry out an
investigation to make sure these murders did not continue.

The
Cuban government discovered that individuals travelling from Central America
were the ones responsible for these bombings.They also discovered that Cubans living in the United States were the
ones who funded the bombings.The
specific organizations the Cubans linked to these bombings were, The Brothers to the Rescue and the Cuban American National Foundation.

The
only way for Cuba to attain this information was to send agents to the United
States for the purpose of infiltrating organizations that were hostile to
Cuba.This meant that these agents
needed to leave their families in Cuba, move to the United States, and live in
a hostile environment.

The
Cuban agents sent to the United States needed to live on an extremely limited
budget.They were only allowed to visit
their families once per year.They were
well aware that their activities might lead to death or imprisonment.Yet these patriots were willing to carry out
this work for the sake of defending their country.

Mythology promoted by Hollywood

Hollywood
has spent a considerable amount of money to portray the fictionalized stories
of international secret agents.The most
famous of these films is about the so-called British agent James Bond or agent
number 007.Typically James Bond
attempts to block the efforts of sinister villains who attempt to bring about
worldwide destruction.

In
his escapades agent Bond typically has access to unlimited funding as well as
the latest weaponry to aid in his effort of saving the world.The writers of these films make agent 007
even more alluring by portraying him as simply irresistible to women.

Ever
since the bombings of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11,
2001, the United States government has claimed that it is on an international
campaign against terrorism. The justification used for the wars against
the people of Afghanistan and Iraq was directly, or indirectly, about this
so-called war against terrorism.

In
order to place this absurd claim of a “war against terrorism” in context we
need to look at a bit of history. First, we might look at the over
one-hundred years of genocidal warfare by the U.S. government against Native
Americans. Then, we might look at the chattel slavery sanctioned by the
U.S. government. Then, we might look at the fact that there were
thousands of lynchings in this country, where the government made no effort to
prosecute the murderers.

In
the world, the U.S. government has ordered the military to murder literally
millions of people in their wars against the people of Korea and Vietnam.They have also threatened to use atomic bombs
against Cuba, as well as other nations.So, when the United States government claims that it is in a war against
terrorism, we might question their sincerity.

The
Cuban government felt that the U.S. Government would be interested in
prosecuting those who carried out the hotel bombings in Cuba.The Cubans had meetings with high level U.S.
representatives where they discussed the evidence the Cubans collected.This evidence clearly connected the hotel
bombings to Cuban groups in the U.S. that are hostile to the present Cuban
government.The U.S. government
responded by arresting five of the Cuban agents who collected this evidence.

The Art of Antonio Guerrero

Recently,
I attended an exhibition of a collection of watercolors by Antonio Guerrero who
is one of the Cuban 5 prisoners.Several
years ago Antonio responded to one of my notes by sending me his wonderful
drawing of Martin Luther King Jr.He is
an excellent artist and this makes his story even more compelling.

From
what I understand, Guerrero learned to become an artist while serving time in
prison.Several prisoners served as his
instructors as he advanced from black and white drawings to watercolors.

The
exhibition I viewed is contained in the Pathfinder book titled “I will die the
way I lived.”This book also contains
poems and some of the writings of Guerrero.

This
exhibition gives the viewer a stark look at what prison life is in the nation
that claims to represent “liberty and justice for all.”Today over two-million inmates in the United
States live under these conditions.These are some of the titles of those watercolors:

The Welcome,
is of a towel and a role of toilet paper.These were the only items given to Guerrero when he entered prison under
solitary confinement.

Number, represents
the numbers and not names that prisoners need to learn in order to be
identified.

The Shakedown, is
of a jail cell where the iron bed is turned upside down.Prison guards can raid a room at any time and
literally turn everything upside down.

The Chains, represents
chains shackled to prisoners when they are transported.Guerrero said that this was an unforgettable
experience.

Slavery and the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution

Here
we might look at the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution that supposedly
outlaws slavery in the United States.
The Amendment states that: “Neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof
the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States,
or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

This Amendment simply states that there is a
legal president for treating inmates in a similar way as slaves under the
system of chattel slavery.We might
consider that the U.S. government continues to conduct itself in this manner in
the year 2014, 149 years after the defeat of the Confederacy in the Civil War.

There are two sides in this confrontation.On one side, are the Cuban people.Although Cuba has limited resources, the
Cuban government has done everything in its power to advance the interests of
its people.Today Cuba has more doctors
and teachers per capita than any other nation in the world.While Cuba has about twice as many doctors
per capita as the United States, the infant mortality rate in Cuba is about
half of what it is in Philadelphia.

On the other side of this controversy is the
United States government.Today this
government is closing down schools, cutting back on health care for working
people, and going to war against people all over the world.

Back in the days when Nelson Mandela was in
prison, I argued that while he lives in prison, none of us can claim to be
free. We can say the same today about
the three out of five Cuban prisoners who continue to live in the dungeons of
the United States.

About Me

I am the author of the novel "Looking Back From 2101." My novel imagines a future world where poverty and discrimination are no longer a part of the human condition. My blog contains articles and poems that I've written over the years. Many of my poems are biographies of historical figures who I have found to be inspiring.